Customer Reviews

Querelle [VHS]

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Brad Davis is captivating as the sailor boy prostitute "Querelle" desired by men and women alike in this odd, yet gentle masterpiece. Clearly not for all audiences, the movie is dark and often harrowing, at times recalling other classic Genet adaptations, and occassionally, even the legendary "Midnight Express" which made Davis a star. Like the latter film, there are moments here that shock the viewer into action, perhaps fewer than necessary, and yet always mezmerizing and accomplished. Steeped in an aura of bright, almost unimaginable color, "Querelle" is one of those gay-cinema classics that deserves a place in an adult video collection (like "Taxi Zum Klo" for example.) Yet remember - this is a harrowing vision, and clearly not for every member of the family. Still, Davis is superb!

What a shame that the distributors are so cynical to release this great film under such poor conditions. The subtle oranges and pinks have been thrown together by a quick and presumably cheap transfer to DVD that they all now merge into some garish red. It's almost unwatchable compared to the VHS copy I own. I thought DVD was supposed to be the ultimate in picture quality... forget it, don't be conned. It's just another way to get us to buy the things we've already got. One more thing: get this - they say that, as a special feature of the DVD, it comes with theatrical trailers - THE TRAILERS ARE FOR OTHER FILMS! AAuuughghghhh!What a [bad deal]... keep your money... you have been warned.

The people who released this DVD should be in jail.

This movie truly made me rethink my pompous blow-hard nature: that is to say, I'm fanatical about Jean Genet, madly in love with Brad Davis, and I even MOSTLY like Fassbinder. But for some reason, I can never seem to get through the first half of this movie.

Jean Genet's forbidden story of Querelle was, simply put, never meant to be translated into a movie. The internal struggles of Querelle were too innate, too complex...to ever be categorized and flow-charted and minced down into two hours of a panel-by-panel film script.

Now, with that said, I think Fassbinder made an excellent attempt to put you right up inside the taboo story of our favorite murderer/hero. The scenery is luscious, the costumry finely detailed, the casting superb. Not to mention the delicious sailor booty of a certain leading man, Brad Davis.

Still, I find this movie left me with much to be desired. After the torrid affair of Querelle and Nono, I wanted to roll over and go to sleep (no underlying meaning meant). Even THEN, there was only so much tension up until that point, and the plot manuevering that Fassbinder undertook did nothing to appease me. For example, the lusty leiutenant who writes of Querelle in the novel, keeps, instead, a tape recorded diary. With any horribly tedious passages taken directly from the text. In terribly stiff monologues.

Scary stuff.

All in all, I rated this movie with four of five stars. It perfectly compliments any Genet collection and makes for wonderful ornamentation on your DVD shelves. But if you've never heard of Jean Genet or never saw a Fassbinder movie, you should probably buy a different homoerotic brothel-lined story of metamorphoses and love.

Querelle is based on Jen Genet's Querelle de Brest. Fassbinder uses Genet's strange mix of blunt dialog and masturbatory narration to create a film that feels more like a revelation of poetry scratched into one of Brest's pissoirs.

Sometimes the characters speak to each other, sometimes they seem to speak in spite of one another, sometimes they simply speak - all too appropriate in the port of Brest, a fertile ground for nearly anonymous, mechanical sex. Though Querelle (perfectly cast), at once vulnerable and malevolent, is the subject of the film's action, the true star is this seething port. Brest is realized entirely on a soundstage, which allows the director to quite literally paint with colored lights and symbolic, often pornographic details. Though ostensibly set somewhere in the first half of the twentieth century, the classic effortlessly melds with the modern (1980s) with the addition of an arcade game and archetypal "homosexuals" that might have stepped from a Tom of Finland drawing.

Querelle is a sailor "in danger of discovering himself", as the mistress of the brothel reveals from her tarot. His strength demands the respect of his peers, his beauty stokes his supervisor's prurient desires, but his inner conflicts drive him to self-destruction as he explores his own deviance. Lust morphs into violence, denial morphs into degradation, sex morphs into violence, and violence morphs into love.

Far from the flip, whitewashed, sexless homosexuality that saturates the media today, Querelle explores the conflicts and complex relations that occur between virile men who discover they desire each other.

In contrast to some other reviewers, I would have to say that this is actually my favorite Fassbinder film--though perhaps it is not representative of his work overall.

This is not Fassbinder's best - but still one of his great imperfect films. The ideas behind this film are profound - and Fassbinder has a very good understanding of the Jean Genet book - you will not find another adaptation of Genet as consistent as this at displaying all of the artificiality, the theme of the double, and the theme of sex and death. Fassbinder was very sly in his control over dialogue and almost comic monotone used to a startling effect here - at times it sounds like an emotionless reading of lines - but this is always done to contrast the other elements of the film and the general theme of the story - Fassbinder had always had a similar approach with dialogue and sountrack in his movies. His use of color and lighting is also rather poignant in this one (not as great as Lola - but still striking) and Xaver Schwarzenberger is one of the great cinematographers of all time. My final decision about this one - is that the viewer should already have some knowledge of Genet - preferably having read the book already - before viewing this film - which like his even greater adaptations - 'Effi Briest' and 'Berlin Alexanderplatz' - has a unique and completely respectfull aproach to the literature. It is a pity that Fassbinder did not live to make more films.

There are many aspects in common respect Fassbinder and his Italian homologue Pier Paolo Pasolini. Both artists became the fragmented mirror of a collapsed and miscarried society; both of them made devastating final Opus (Salo and Querelle); both were artistic Ambassadors of the Post War generation; likewise both were descendents precisely of two nations joined by contiguous ideologies and far beyond their sexual patterns, both were solid and deep thinkers, imbued and steeled by a invisible commitment that allowed them to expose and immolate themselves prematurely, a very curious aspect to remark if you relate them with other two emblematic figures of different latitudes: Mishima and Jim Morrison.

Twelve days after winning the coveted Golden Bear in Berlin with Veronika Voss, Fassbinder stated Querelle told the story "about a guy whose soul transforms in a crocodile `s one." He repeated Genet `s words, but besides he referred about himself and who wanted to be. Querelle is a modern mythic personage; irremediably narcissist; opium dealer and murder, mariner and thief, the best and worst of both worlds.

Querelle filming was not fortunate, somehow the burden of the song repeated by Jeanne Moreau seemed to mold the general anima state: "All men kill those who love; some of them when are young; some of them when are old; some with passion; some with gold; all men kill those who love."

Fassbinder was inflamed of creative and febrile enthusiasm; perhaps in his wildest dreams the death smiled him, but he never gave up, he wanted to be loved and recognized . After Berlin, Cannes and after Venice said once.

But there are some hidden communicant vessels beneath the spirit that would seem to put in march some fatidic and clue devices to establish finally the unexpected ending of a hazardous life who risked and bet, but who inscribed his name in the Cinema with bloody words: Fassbinder.

It is absolutely impossible for you not to presage the bitter farewell taste, Querelle became somehow as the last host of a long list of previous guests. In that stage appeared ancient characters; a true parade of memories; because every time we remind Ali, Maria Braun, Effie Briest, Petra von Kant, Veronika, Lolita among so many others load the screen, Fassbinder will reappear masked behind his outrageous way of dressing and dark glasses, repeating us what he told once to a friend about his workaholic tendency, he responded clever or perhaps convinced of a secret precognition sense: "I will rest when I am dead."

Fassbinder made thirty six films in just seventeen years. And his death became a true void in the German Cinema, a place that still keeps, pitifully empty.

In memoriam (1946-1982).

First of all when you get the DVD version, you have the opportunity to watch the film as it was originally filmed - in English. Anyone who speaks French and can read lips knows that the film was dubbed into French (and not just bad sync-sound) - the film was later released back in the states with English subtitles under the French dub (talk about a triple threat).

I must say that I love this movie for tackling issues that 20 years ago were definitely still taboo in the mainstream. Although not a masterpiece in terms of plot development, I believe it stays true to the development of Jean Genet's characters - and of course the cinematography is stunning. Like watching a live action Tom of Finland cartoon directed by David Lynch at times... Wonderful.

...and it only gets more confusing after that. 'Querelle' is a difficult movie to follow. I've watched it quite a few times and I end up with something new after each viewing. Querelle (Brad Davis in a way-too-tight sailor uniform) appears to be just another resident meanie in the port of Brest. OK, a very sexually-repressed meanie. He hasn't come to the realization that he just wants to be loved. How he comes to that realization is the plot of the movie (...or is it?). Along the way, Querelle murders, fondles a cop, smuggles drugs and flirts with his commanding officer.

The movie is an eerie, voyeuristic experience painted in sepia tones. Although Querelle participates is numerous kinky episodes, there is nothing pornographic here in the sense of flailing flesh and hungry moans (lots of sweaty sailors, though) and everything that happens moves the plot along.

The DVD is a welcome change from the Columbia and EDDE edition VHS tapes (but I would rather have the original Columbia VHS artwork instead of the big "Q" here). The print is anamorphic (2.35:1) and of a pretty good quality for 1982. I did notice a few frame shakes here and there but nothing too jarring. You also get the original English mono track and an alternate French track. There's no trailer included for this movie but there's a couple of other unrelated ones.

So sit back and prepare to scratch your head and say "What the..." Querelle is definately not a disappointing flick.

The imperfections of this film--slow pacing (by American standards), choppy transitions, complex and convoluted plot, unpredictable outcomes hidden from the viewer until the last moment then released with insufficient force--are truly irrelevent when the experience of the essence of Genet's novel and its leading character are so effectively brought to the screen in its form, color, casting and concept. Brad Davis is awesome in his portrayal of Querelle--enormous emotional and physical risk, awkward to watch at times because of its truth and openness. If you love Genet, as I do, there is no finer interpreter of his sensibilities than Fassbinder. I am not an expert on Fassbinder, but I love this film.

I saw it three times, read articles about it. But I do not understand this movie. Who can tell the story? But never mind - just the acting of Brad Davis is worthwhile to see it again. A keen and successfull experiment of R.W. Fassbinder to use just the Studios and an invented harbour-world. Like in the old days of the silent movies. Nevertheless it was a (medium) succes in Germany 1982 and achieved cult-status in off-cinemas, for example it is frequently shown in Paris.